This is Gordimer's second novel (the first of her books I've read). It tells the story of Toby Hood, a 20-something Englishman in the 1950s who becomes bored with his parents' activism (his reactionary attitude is captured in the first sentence of the book: "I hate the faces of peasants"). Toby travels to South Africa, where he's been asked to replace a retiring employee in his family's publishing company in Johannesburg. While his mother and her friends think South Africa will be a great place for Toby to take up progressive causes, he has no intention of becoming -- as he says -- "a voyeur of the world's ills and social perversions". Instead, he simply wants to "live". There's a good discussion of Gordimer's earliest novels, including A World of Strangers, here. For more reviews of Gordimer's work, see Per Wastberg's excellent essay at the Nobel Prize site, Nadine Gordimer and the South African Experience.

Gordimer was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1991.

I'm sending this book to my friend Natalie, who introduced me to Nadine Gordimer in the first place. If you're reading this, hope you enjoy the book!